Lingering Memories
by Fullmetalsoul0062
Summary: Ed comes back from a mission scarred in more than one way. He seems to have lost all hope, and his personality has faded. Who can help bring him back? Parental!Roy/Ed. Non yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

A/N-Another Parental!Roy/Ed! Also little Edo in pain. Sorry again about shortness I'm not cery giid with big chapters. Anyways first chapter. Please review!

Chapter One

Ed stormed into Mustangs office and stopped just short of the desk.

"What have you got for me this time, bastard?" Edward basically snarled.

"Now, now Fullmetal, no need for that attitude." Roy said, almost purring.

Ed sighed. "Just get on the with it Mustang, or are you just to lazy, you old man?"

Mustang smirked. "You have to get some new comebacks Fullmetal. You're running pretty short on good ones."

Edward exploded." HEY! WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE CAN'T EVEN SEE OVER THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF YOUR UNDONE PAPERWORK ON YOUR DESK,COLONEL BASTARD!"

Mustang frowned. Ed had managed to insult him when going on one of his *cough* little *cough* rants.

"Why, you of course. And for your information Fullmetal, I only got these reports today."

"Of course you did. Can I get the stupid assignment sheet now?" Ed grumbled.

"Here you go." Roy said sweetly, passing the briefing papers over to him.

"Humph." Ed frowned. "You think there's a Philosopher's Stone all the way out in Guilden?" He said, looking up from the sheet of paper.

"Why not? It's the only lead you've got. Also I may need to add, you can't take Al with you."

"WHAT! That's unfair and you know it, bastard. The philosophers stone means just as much to him, as it does for me." Ed growled, feeling like the entire world was against him at this point. It was raining as well for God's sake!

"Sorry, Fullmetal but your brother is a bit too recognizable for this one. If you actually can be bothered to read the sheet properly, you might find out why as well." Mustang said.

Ed grumbled some more, before rolling his eyes and saying, "See ya later then, ya bastard. Don't get too lazy when I'm gone."

And with that he walked out of the office, kicking the door open as he went.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N-Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Chapters will get longer but its kind of hard to do right now because allt he're doing is thinking. Not exactly much action to right about. As the story goes on the chapters will het longd though. Sorry.

Chapter 2

Edward packed his bag, muttering obscenities about the colonel under his breath.

"What was that Nii-san?" Al called from the kitchen in the small military dorm that they shared.

"Uhhh... nothing Al!" Ed said, not wanting Alphonse reprimanding him again for being rude about the colonel.

"Oh, okay. So what's your mission about again?"

"Some shit about going to this town called Guilden or something. Apparently there was a strange man using a red stone to help his magic tricks or something. It's probably a dead end. _Again._" Ed sighed. All he wanted to do was help his brother out. Okay, that was putting it mildly, but it was essentially the same thing.

"Don't be so negative Brother! You never know it could, be the real thing this time." Al chastened, he had always been the most optimistic of the two.

"That's what you say every time Al." Ed sighed in frustration. He knew what his brother was saying was true but he couldn't help being a bit pessimistic sometimes. It had been 3 years and they still hadn't gotten anywhere. All he wanted was to put his brother back into his own body. He didn't care what happened to him, though Alphonse would probably kill him for saying that. "Anyway, I gotta go now Al. I'll see you in a week or so."

And with that he swung his suitcase over his shoulder and walked out of the door. He raised his hand on farewell but he didn't look back.

FMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFM AFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFM

Ed shifted around on his seat. Usually train journeys were easy for him but this time it was different. It felt so weird not having his brother sitting beside him. And the stupid bastard had insisted on Edward going in disguise. He felt exposed without his customary red cloak and golden hair. Now he had a normal brown coat and dark brown hair. There was nothing they could do about his eyes though, they would remain the same.

The train whistled and he could hear the clacking of the wheels and pistons of the train moving, sending the train on it's way. Ed gazed out of the window, taking in the surrounding scenery. Guilden was quite far out in the west, in the countryside actually. Apparently the man who supposedly had the stone was a travelling 'magician' making money by going around small towns, entertaining the people. Ed was 99 percent sure it was a fake. I mean if you had the Philosophers Stone, surely you would something worthwhile with it?

He leaned his forhead against the cool glass of the window, stuck in his thoughts of the past, and humourous train journeys with Al. After a while he became aware of a small child standing in the aisle looking at him in wonder. He shot a nervous glance around, checking if the kids parents were anywhere near. Apparently they weren't.

"Umm... hello." Ed said nervously, wondering if thay had been the right thing to say. "Why are you staring at me?" He ventured, figuring they might as well get straight to the point.

The little girl peered up at Edward shyly. "W-whys your arm all shiny?" She stuttered.

Ed smiled tiredly. "I lost my arm in an accident, so I have thus shiny one instead."

The girl looked confused for a moment." How do you lose an arm? Thats a pretty stupid thing to do." Obviouslt she thought he meant literally lost it.

"It's hard to explain, but it was an accident."

The girl pouted, clearly not satisfied with this answer. "But.." she whined. Just as she started a lady walked up behind her in a fluster.

"There you are Lily! Don't worry mommy like that again. Okay?"

Lily nodded, but then said, "But mom I was talking to someone!"

The woman looked over as if noticing Ed for the first time. "Oh, sorry if she was annoying you, young man. We'll be going now." And with that she strode away, dragging the child with her.

Well that was weird, Ed thought.

A/N- Sorry, know the little kid thing was a bit random bit if you can believe it the chapter was even shorter to begin with. Whoops.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Thanks to everyone who reviewed!

Chapter Three

Ed stretched his limbs tiredly, as he realised that the train was approaching his stop. He stood up and reached for his luggage, before hopping up with boundless energy, and throwing the train door open. Stepping of the train, he looked around at the near empty station. It was almost as remote as Resembool! Well not quite,he doubted anywhere could be as remote as there. Taking long strides he started to try to find a hotel where he could stay for the next few days. He doubted he was going to be staying anywhere near that long though, as most of his other philosophers stone missions had been done in two days or less.

He paused outside of the village church. He gazed up at the massive building in wonder, taking in the stained glass windows, the spiralling turret and the balcony that gave an impressive view of the sunset. He obviously wasn't religious, but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the magnificent architectural work that had been put in to build this.

After he decided he had admired the church enough, Ed continued down the small street, walking over the worn cobblestones, looking for the hotel. As he did so he glanced at his surrounding, taking in the layout of the town. Edward, in his daze, almost walked right past the hotel. When he realised his mistake, he spun around and quickly walked through the entrance, which opened up into a small lobby of sorts. He strolled up to the desk and looked at the small lady that was standing behind it. She looked up at him and smiled in a motherly way, "What can I do for you today?"

Ed smiled at her. "I'm just wondering if I can take up a room for the next two nights."

The woman smiled back at him. "Of course. Your room will be straight up the stairs and the first one on the left. Come down here and give me a shout if you need anything, okay?" She handed him a brass key with a small tag on it. He presumed it was the room number.

Ed nodded his head politely. "Thanks!" He then proceeded to run up the stairs and fling open the door labelled 23.

FMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFM

Ed was slowly meandering down the old, cobblestoned main street of Guilden,wondering where he should go first to pick up some information on this magician guy. With his hands in his pockets, and his mind made up, he purposely made his way towards the main park. He figured if the magician man had performed anywhere it might have been here. Also he could see quite a few people already gathered around the picnic benches the park had to offer.

The sun shone down on the grass, making it sprinkle with dew and frost, as he walked towards a bench. once he found one that had a view over the small lake, Ed settled down to see if he could overheat any conversations, before starting any himself. He casually glanced around, finding that a family of 5 were just a few metres away from him,playing with a ball.

"Daddy,Daddy! Come play with us!"

The father smiled at his childs tone of delight and made his way over to her, leaving the mother and the boys, standing next to the lake feeding the ducks.

Ed moved his head so it was angled more towards some elderly people who were chatting to themselves. He could only pick up snippets of their conversation, bit soon enough decided it was relevant.

"...my little grandson loved the trick with the..." an old lady said, leaning in towards her friends,obviously doting on her grandson.

"...amazing! A flash of red light then..." another lady said.

"...red stone. Holds it when he does the tricks and..." a younger looking woman was speaking this time,maybe in of the elderly women daughter.

Ed nodded to himself. So there was some truth to the stories the Colonel had given him. He just needed to find out where this man was now so he could corner him, beat him up, get the stone and drag him back to Central. Seemed easy enough. The next snippet of information he heard started of those .

"...show this evening. I'm bringing my youngest..."

Well, that had been easier than expected.

FMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFMAFM

It was very easy to find out where this show was going to be. All he did was follow the small but steady trickle of people heading towards the park. A small stage had been set up, most likely so everyone could have a good view. Families were sitting on rugs, people sitting on benches all around the place. He chose to lean against tred, not far from the platform, his face hidden in the shadows. To any passer-by he looked like he was sleeping.

Ed's eyes narrowed as he watched a man stepping up onto the stage, dressed in normal clothes at least,not like some of those ridiculous costumes he had seen in his travels. The man didn't introduce himself, but instead plucked a small flower from the ground. He held it in his cupped hands and a red glow engulfed him. When ut had subsided, Edward could gazed in excitement at the showering of flower petals he was now receiving, along with everyone else in the park. His thoughts were quite different though.

'Yes! Finally, a real philosophers stone! Well, it looked like it judging from the alchemical reaction. And the fact that he didn't follow the rules of equivalent exchange.' Ed though, a wide grin breaking out on his face. Then he admonished himself. 'No, don't think like that. You'll just get your hopes raised and if it turns out to be a fake, you'll be even more disappointed. I mean, look what happened in Liore. Cornello's one actually broke.'

Distracted by his thoughts, he never even noticed the following stunts the alchemist was performing. When he finally dragged himself out of them, the man was speaking.

"I thank you all for showing up today. If you want to make donations please put it into the box over there." The man pointed with his left hand to a small black box, resting on a table, situated to the right of the stage. " If you wish to speak to me, I would be delighted to engage in a conversation, around the back of this stage." He waved slightly, and after bowing, walked off the stage, using a small set of stairs.

Ed remained beside the tree, deciding he would engage this man in combat later this evening. With that decision made, he strolled off in the general direction of his hotel, in a state of euphoria.

A/N- Thanks for waiting! I'm so sorry for taking so long, but a few things happened that made me have to type this all out again. Basically a power cut that lasted over 14 hours. Yay! Next chapter will be up quicker I promise!

Fullmetalsoul0062


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Action alert! Also remembered to put a disclaimer in! Yay!

DISCLAIMER- I do not own FullMetal Alchemist, neither do I get any money out of this.

Chapter 4

Edward was currently sitting on the edge of his bed, pulling on his boots. He had already performed an automail maintenance check, so he was pretty sure nothing would go wrong in this fight. Ed had changed clothes so he was wearing something similar to his usual attire but not anything too recognisable as the Fullmetal Alchemist. Edward smiled to himself. He had found a stone! He could finally start to get Al's body back. However there was always that voice at the back of his head, making him doubt the authenticity of the stone, or even making him believe he was going to lose the fight. Ed did his best to ignore this voice, but it was hard to, as it was always there, niggling its way into his mind and unearthing his deepest fears.

Ed stood up suddenly, not wanting to waste anymore time sitting around doing nothing, just needing to go and get the stone. He walked over to the door and opened it abruptly, shutting it behind him with equal ferocity. Stomping down the stairs in his black boots, he was wondering about the advantages and disadvantages he had. For one the man obviously had the Philosophers Stone, meaning he could use it in a fight to a great degree, but Ed had little doubt that he was the best hand to hand fighter between them.

Edward reached the main floor and swung the front door open. He was greeted by a big gust of wind that had brought along some rain with it. Great. He hadn't even noticed that it was raining. That would be yet another disadvantage against him. Still, it didn't put him off, as he stepped outside, putting his hood up and huddling into his coat's meagre warmth and protection from the rain. Ed made his way down the street heading in the direction of the park. He passed the church again, and all the shops before coming to a stop before the dark green grass, marking the start of the park. Ed stealthily passed around the grass making for the woods, treading silently. When he reached them, Ed wrapped his cloak tighter around himself and transmuted his automail into his signature knife. He then continued forward, making his way towards the small caravan/house at the back of the raised platform. Ed was about 5 metres away from it, when the door swung open and the man stomped out. Ed froze for a second , his muscles tensing. The man's eyes widened and stepped back quickly about to run back into the caravan. Before that could happen though, Ed sprung forward blocking his path. He shook his head and grinned.

"Nuh uh! You ain't going anywhere!"

And with that he leapt forward. A bright red light flashed, and from the corner of his eyes he noticed wooden spikes emerging from the walls of the caravan. He dodged them, leaping from side to side, his breathing accelerated. He ended up crouching on the ground staring at the man as he grinned instead.

"Where was I going again? Oh yes. Away from you!"

He turned and ran, with Edward following right behind him. They ran back through the park, while Ed tried to stop the man running by springing up traps and walls in front of him. None of them worked though, so they continued to run down the streets. It was quite late at night so no one had noticed them yet. Ed's breathing was laboured, his stumps aching, and he knew he had to end this soon. Meanwhile the man was actually making a deliberate path towards the centre of town. Ed noticed this and wondered why in the world the man was heading towards the most populated area, as then there would be more spectators.

They continued their chase through town, and Ed wirely thought of Mustang slagging him off about taking so long. His right leg was starting to ache, but he pushed himself to an even greater speed. The man was taking a left and Ed realised where he was going. The church.

Feet slamming into the ground, the man swung open the heavy oak door and shut it with a bang behind him, clicking the lock into place. Ed skidded to a halt in front of the door but not for long. He clapped his hands and placed them on the doors. They burst open, and he set off running again, weaving through the pews. Behind the pulpit,with the golden eagle spreading its wings in flight, up the winding staircase, through a small trapdoor and up on to the church roof. Why was the man coming up here? It wasn't like there was an escape route or something.

The man was right on the edge and for a moment Ed was afraid he was going to jump. But then he turned around, spreading his palms open, revealing a bright red stone.

"If you take _one_ step closer I will blow up the ground around your feet. So don't come any closer, you hear me?" He said, with a slightly hysterical tone.

Ed paused. He couldn't risk getting any closer, or he would be blown skyhigh. On the other hand though, he couldn't just wait here and do nothing. Best thing to do, he decided, would be to stall the man until he was distracted. Then Ed would make his move.

"Right. Of course you will. Who would have the guts to that?" Ed allowed a sarcastic tone to enter his voice, goading the man.

"**I would!** The Strong Will Alchemist, Alec Cartwright!"

Well, Ed hadn't expected him to do that. Wait...

"You're a State Alchemist?" Ed raised his eyebrows. _Another_ rogue State Alchemist. They always gave the military trouble. No doubt this Cartwright guy was now trying to make his living doing those 'magic' tricks. The man did look slightly familiar though.

"Of course I was! Now will you still continue aggravate me?" Cartwright said in a superior voice, believing the child would back down as soon as he mentioned anything official.

"Huh. Course I will. After all you have to pick on someone your own size don't you?" Ed dipped his hand into his pocket and pulled his pocket watch out, the silver catching the light.

"No way! The military doesn't recruit children!" He spat out the last word, as if it was blasphemous.

"Really." Ed grinned, revelling in the other mans disbelief, even overlooking the fact that he had called him a child. "The name Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist ring any bells?"

"What? You're the Fullmetal Alchemist? But why did you get such a name?" The man managed to splutter that much out.

"Yep! And by how I got the name... well you'll soon find out." Ed glared at the man, and with a clap of his hands transmuted his automail, all at once revealing it, and getting ready for a fight. "So how are you going to manage to blow up the ground again?"

Cartwright raised his eyebrows at the automail. "Well, well, well some of us have been keeping a few secrets. Oh and you probably shouldn't attack me, considering the giant transmutation circle between us. Whoever steps on it, if they have ever used alchemy, will activate it." He smiled sarcastically.

Ed chuckled and stepped back a few paces. "Good thing I can do this then!" Ed ran quickly forward and at the last moment, sprung up into the air leaping over the transmutation circle. Alec's eyes grew wide at the astonishing leap. He then snarled animalistically and sent a spinning kick Ed's way. Edward dodged it gracefully, and crouched onto the ground, regaining his breath, before sprinting forward to punch him in the face.

Cartwright leant backwards dodging the blow, bringing his hand up to catch the automail fist. His hand clenched around it, and he pulled sharply on the piece of metal. With an ear wrenching groan, the automail arm was ripped from his port and flung off the building. Ed struggled to breathe, trying to comprehend the pain he was in. His eyes rolled back up into their sockets, and he lurched, trying to find his balance. Cartwright started to laugh, his whole body shaking from hysterics.

"Useless now aren't you! Cripple!" The man laughed again, before grabbing hold of Ed's braid and pulling him over to the edge of the church roof, until most of Eds body was leaning over the side. "See that view, Fullmetal? See it? Thats the last thing your going to see before you die!"

Ed's legs trembled, and he breathed in deeply, unable to look away from the street below, which was now meant to be his resting place. He could almost imagine a squished Edward lying down there. How had the fight gone so wrong? How on earth was he going to explain this to Mustang? That was a pointless thought. It wasn't like he was going to be seeing Mustang or anybody else any time soon.

Cartwright lowered his head until his mouth was right next to Ed's ear.

"Remember my face Edward. Remember that _I_ killed you. Don't ever forget."

And with that he let go. Ed toppled off the side and all he could think of was how ironic it was that he was finally meeting his end, and it was going to be on a fucking church.

A/N- Woooo! Longest chapter yet! Gives myself a present of internet cookies. Thanks for reading and please reveiw!

Fullmetalsoul0062


	5. Chapter 5

A/N- Thanks to all who reviewed and sorry to all I didn't manage to reply to. Also sorry for taking so long but this chapter was all confusing in my head and I wanted it to make sense. It probably is still confusing, and if you find it so please tell me so I can explain it. Anyway here is the new chapter!

Chapter Five

Falling is a funny feeling. Like flying, but with obvious differences. It was like simply relaxing, leaning back, or lying on a feather soft bed. It was so tempting just to give up and lie back into its cradling embrace. Most normal people would. They would just lie back and let fate take its natural path. But Edward Elric had never claimed to be a normal person.

That's why he fought with all his strength, arms pinwheeling, head snapping back, desperately searching for a way out of it. He had to get out of it, even if it were just for Al. He had to find something to stop this. All this happened in a matter of split-seconds, Ed's mind was going into overdrive. His memories seemed to decide to take over though, and he could do little to resist it. Most of them were pointless, just him walking down the street of this god-forsaken place! Wait! There was his chance! His arm reached out in front of him, reacting mainly on instinct. Flesh connected violently with stone and pain flared on his palm and up his arm, with a bone shattering jolt and Edward clung onto the side of the ornate balcony he had remembered seeing earlier.

Cartwright didn't even bother looking over the edge of the church. He just stood there, waiting to here the sickly thud of a small body hitting the pavement. Alec crossed his arms smugly, a satisfied grin plastered on his face. He would probably have to leave the town right afterwards, as the military would launch an investigation into this no doubt. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts he hadn't yet realised there had been no sickly thud indicating that the boy was dead.

Ed would have laughed in relief if he hadn't been bewildered by the fact that he had come so close to death. Also because of the fact that Cartwright was still standing about 5 metres above his head, and might decide to look over the side of the church at any moment. He had to do something about it. Edward started to swing himself back and forth, an act that made him grunt in effort. This was so hard to do with only one arm. He swung even harder and , due to his strenuous effort managed to hook his left leg over the side of the balcony. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone seeing him like this. But then his mood turned darker at the thought of trying to fight this man with only one arm, and no immediate alchemy. He straddled the balcony, an extremely dangerous position if you take into account the fact that he was severely imbalanced right now. Ed did.

Unfortunately for Ed, Cartwright was not as wrapped up in his thoughts as he had been. He stood there, trying to remember if he had heard the body make contact with the ground. He had no idea if he had, so he decided to go check. Standing a safe distance away from the edge, Cartwright leant over the side, craning his neck. He almost fell off the edge in shock. The boy was sitting there calmly, seemingly without a care in the world. He snarled in anger, and Ed looked up in terror, knowing he had almost no means to stop the alchemist from reaching him. He could try though. Ed scratched at the stone, making a transmutation circle. He slammed his hand onto it, and a giant stone hand burst out of the balcony, and went to grab Cartwright, who recovered his wits in time and leapt out of the way. Backwards. He smirked at the small alchemist.

"You really thought_that_ was going to stop me! Hah!" He scoffed, not noticing the blue energy crackling around his feet.

"Pathetic!"

Ed could hear Cartwright but he ignored him, swinging his other leg over the balcony, when he heard an extremely distressed shout.

"NO!" This was then followed by a short scream of rage and pain.

Ed jumped in shock at the sudden noise, and felt himself fall off the balcony.

'Well, this is just fucking great. Wonder what Mustang would be saying now if he could see me.'

Again he felt that weird flying feeling. Then, suddenly, he was flying and he could help but let out a scream as he felt the pain coursing round his body. He flew high into the sky ('Like an angel!' he thought, feeling slightly lucid) but it wasn't worth the pain. It was worse than being stabbed at laboratory 5, even though he wasn't suffering from blood loss. It was as bad as losing his limbs he realised, in a moment of clarity. Apart from the fire seemed to be all over his body, and he couldn't breath, which was troubling him a bit. The fire reached his face, and he couldn't see anymore, not that there had been much to see in the first place, but still. The pain finally reached its climax point, as did his flying apparently. He came crashing back down to earth, like Icarus on his wax wings, and just as he had thought the pain was dulling, it flared up again, and he hit the ground with bone-breaking force. And break bones it did.

'And then Icarus dies.'

A/N-Yay! I count this as an early Christmas present! Okay, now things to explain.

-the reason Ed is a bit strange at the end, is that I believe that life threatening situations can do that to you. He's also in a lot of pain as you might have gathered, so he's gone into shock basically.

-What actually happened when Ed fell off the balcony? I am not going to answer this as the person who gives me the answer first will get internet cookies and cyber hugs! Yay! Unfortunately though Icefore1224 is not allowed to do this as she has an unfair advantage over everybody. Sorry :3

I don't know when I'll be updating next, because of Christmas and stuff that needs to be done, places to go, family to visit. Christmas stuff. I'll update as soon as possible, though it will most likely be in 2014. So...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Fullmetalsoul0062


	6. Chapter 6

A/N- Sorry for the wait :( It's just Christmas is a busy time of year and I had to do a lot of stuff. This chapter is from a general point of view as Ed is a little bit incapacitated at the moment as you might imagine. Anyway here it is!

DISCLAIMER- I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, it belongs to Hiromu Arakawa. All that I own is the story line and 9 FMA volumes (one bought today :D) and the complete Brotherhood collection. Yay!

Chapter Six

There was fire and rubble strewn about the place. All the villagers could do was thank any god that nobody had been in the church at the time, until the military arrived, seeing as the building had been destroyed in strange circumstances crowded around the wreckage of the church. They stood there gazing at wonder at the mass of destruction that had taken place there. One family was crying onto each others shoulders, wondering if they were going to see their son ever again, because he had left the house for the church 10 minutes before it exploded. No one had seen him since.

What sat in the place where the church used to be, was a battlefield. Chunks of stone and wood were scattered around, some supporting each other up and in danger of collapsing. Lots of what was left was on fire, and the villagers could feel the heat radiating from it. Stained glass shards littered the ground, making gouges where they had slid across the ground. It had been hard to breath at first, because of all the dust in the air, caused by some of the stone being blown up. It almost created a mushroom around the site.

Three black cars rounded the corner, the colour indicating they were military. The cars braked in front of the church and a swarm of blue seemed to spill out of them as the soldiers got out of the cars. One man was obviously the leader, as he stood about shouting at everybody.

"Fraser, Logan, Connelly and Beal start by stopping the fire. After that clear away the rubble." The respective men rushed away to their jobs, as the man watched them, then, nodding, turned to face the rest of them again.

"Okay! Collins, Kotler, Mowat, Stephen and Watt get yourselves over there and clean up this place. Search for survivors while you're at it. The rest of you get that crowd AWAY from here then try to find out who caused this god-damn explosion." He stomped off, towards what was left of the church, probably to over see the clearing away of rubble.

The rest of the military swiftly marched or ran off to complete their jobs. The shifting of the rubble took a considerable amount of time, as the church had been a large building. It had not gotten any smaller, it was just in smaller pieces. Large trucks with open backs were called in to carry the material away. The fires had long gone out, and everybody was either rubble and looking for anything (or anyone) salvageable. That or searching for any sign to shed light on how the church managed to explode.

Warrant Officer Beal was currently moving rubble into the trucks. He was covered in powdered stone and mud, but he kept on going, muscles straining from lifting all those rocks. Suddenly a shout came from the Lieutenant who was commanding them at the moment.

"Beal, Kotler swap jobs!"

Beal smiled. Kotler had been assigned the job of looking for survivors. That would be easy. All he had to do was look around a small area. Both men nodded and got on with their new jobs. Beal surveyed the wreckage. Best place to start would be under the piles of stone of the west side. He marched over there and began gently moving the stone chunks off the large piles, hoping to unearth the young man that family had been looking for. He ran the description over in his head. Short black hair, blue eyes, wearing brown.

He had almost finished with this pile when he saw a flash of brown. He glanced back over his shoulder wondering if he had actually seen that. Beal walked back to the pile and shifted a few more pieces of stone. He raised his eyebrows as he realised that he was looking at someone's head. His mouth fell open on shock when he/she actually _moved. _ He began to unearth the person in the rubble frantically, shouting out to his colleagues at the same time. He began to work faster when he saw that the person was struggling to breath. By then (thankfully) his friends had heard him and rushed over to help. They pulled away the last of the rubble to find a teenaged boy underneath it all. From behind his injuries didn't seem to be to bad, but when they rolled him over Beal had to fight back to urge to gag at the sight of it. He could actually _smell_ the flesh burning.

"Oh my god... somebody get an ambulance!" Beal started of whispering but ended up shouting, slightly hysterical.

He cradled the young man in his arms, trying to ignore the groans that he was emitting. The boys face was unrecognisable. His face was covered in horrible burns, which extended down his neck, torso, left arm and leg. After a closer examination, he realised that the teenager was missing an arm and his leg was automail. It was hardly recognisable as automail anymore though, it was so melted and twisted. The mans eyes had somehow miraculously escaped being harmed too badly, but Beal could see that his left eye was cloudy and glazed over. He was breathing in short, shallow gasps shuddering at each intake of air. His hair was long on the left side of hos head while on his right it was burnt down to the roots, leaving scorch marks on the boys head that Beal knew would leave scars. Beal lifted his head up at the sound of an ambulance, realising that his friends were standing next to him, looking down at the boy with gazes that were mixtures of pity and disgust.

Beal wondered vaguely where the ambulance had come from, there were no proper hospitals in the nearby area. He figured the military had phoned one of their own hospitals,which they were permitted to do if it was an emergency. Obviously it was a matter for life and death to this boy here. Beal gently picked him up, wincing at the small shriek that came from the boy, trying to handle him more carefully. The paramedics came with a stretcher and he laid him down on it, teeth clenched from the effort of slow descent.

"We'll take him from here, Warrant Officer."

Beal nodded dumbly, unable to reply due to shock. He watched the ambulance drive of with sirens blaring, and he wondered if the boy was going to be all right.

A/N- Thanks for reading! Okay, things to explain.

1) The reason Mustang hasn't heard of the explosion is because, nobody apart from a few people know that Ed was there and that was more of the higher ups than the ones that come to the scene of the crime.

2)Reason for why there is no higher ranking officer at Guilden is because I don't think they would take an exploding church with no known casualties as a high ranking priority.

3) Yes, the boy is Ed if you hadn't figured it out.

Please review and until next time!

Fullmetalsoul0062


	7. Chapter 7

A/N- Hello! Again sorry for taking so long. There are multiple reasons. First my brain shrivels up and dies in the corner of my skull, so all my creativity went with it. More sensible reasons include, homework, internet dying and the website having a stroke and deciding I couldn't update any stories D: Sorry. FINALLY here it is!

Chapter Seven

It was all so hazy. There was definitely people surrounding him. And big bright lights. He wished he could tell someone to switch them off, they were so annoying. One thing he was not to sure was real or not was the itching on the side of his face. It didn't even make sense. Even if he was injured, he shouldn't be itching. Should he? Ed wasn't actually to sure anymore. What did pain feel like again? Probably not like this. The itching got more intense, and he wanted so badly to lift his hand up and scratch his face but when he tried to, his body wouldn't respond. Edward frowned mentally, after finding out that that was another thing he was incapable of doing at the moment. Maybe his automail was busted up again. So the solution was to his left hand, but was confused to find that he couldn't move that either. He gave up, resigned to just putting up with it, despite his need to a scratch it.

The crowd of people got bigger, each person blending messily into the person next to them. He couldn't pick out individual faces, or even clothing, but they were all wearing white, he reasoned, so it might be hard even he was completely aware. Voices penetrated his skull, resonating and ringing, distracting him immensely. Ed wasn't to sure what he was being distracted from though. Some voices were louder than others, and they were the ones that made sense in his messed up world at the moment.

"Hurry up! We're losing him!"

Ed scoffed internally. How could they 'lose' him? He was lying right in front of them! The sane part of his mind said that maybe that wasn't exactly what they meant, but staying on the sane side of reality hurt too much. It was someone had bulldozed him over in a truck, then decided to reverse over him, over and over again, just for the sake of it. At least that's all he felt before he decided to stay in the less painful part of his mind.

Edward's eyes pinwheeled, taking in his surroundings properly. This was weird. It was all white, except some blue splodges above him. Some red flashed into his range of vision. He was also confused by that. Until he reasoned that if he was presuming he was injured, then there would probably be blood involved in it somewhere. At least he thought it was blood. Suddenly his vision grew more hazy, and more voices joined in the original one, until his ears were straining from all the noise.

"His heart's failing! Get the defiblerator!"

There was a pause where people seemed to be fiddling with something.

"CLEAR!"

Ed felt a shock in his chest, one that stopped his concentration from solely focusing on keeping himself in the non-painful side of reality. It pushed him into the extremely painful side, and Ed trembled with the effort of not screaming out loud. Instead a low moan passed his lips, one filled with terror and agony.

"He's stable."

Ed opened his eyes, not even realising he had closed them admist all the panic. Everything was clearer, and he realised the blue splodges were some sort of masks, and yes, there _was _a lot of blood. He strained himself, grinding his teeth, trying not to scream. Ed's eyes rolled, trying to distract himself from the pain. It wasn't working, even despite his best efforts. His opened his mouth and tried to scream shocked by the choking noise that issued out of his mouth. A burning started in his throat, and he regretted ever screaming. Or at least trying to.

"Barret, you idiot! Inject him with the painkillers NOW!"

Ah. That's why it hurt so much. Stupid doctors. This was the reason why he hated hospitals, they never did a good enough job, and put him through a lot of unnecessary pain. But there it was, the relief of pain that was more commonly known as the effect of painkillers. It was strange though. The pain was still there, it was just like it had been pushed to one side, numbed down a bit. The voices piped up again. God, they were so annoying.

"Give him something to knock him out. He doesn't want to be awake for this bit."

Ed felt himself being pushed under, not into the less painful part of reality, but to a different side altogether. It was like falling asleep, he reasoned, just like falling asleep...

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Roy fidgeted in the back seat. Maybe it was a good thing that he wasn't driving, he would be likely to send them careering off the road. He also probably wasn't supposed to come personally to these sort of things, but he felt responsible if anything had happened to Fullmetal while he was on this mission.

Mustang had been annoyed when he'd heard of the 'exploding church incident'. He had just pegged it down as Fullmetal's reckless behaviour like he usually did. But when a week went past with no contact from him, Mustang started to get worried. Despite Ed's reluctance to check in with the colonel, he always did it at the end of a mission, even if just to tell Mustang it had been a dead end and they were coming home soon.

He had read up about the explosion in the newspapers, and there had never bee any mention of Fullmetal. That led Mustang to believe Ed had either gotten injured or gone off on his own to do more research. The second option sounded unlikely, as Ed wouldn't want to leave his brother than any longer than absolutely possible. Mustang didn't particularly like the first option very much. To his own surprise he had volunteered to go see if Ed was still in this 'Guilden' place, or if he was injured.

So that was how Mustang found himself in the back of a car, driven by Havoc, on a backwash country road. Havoc was staring into space, not really paying any attention to the road at all. He was more concentrated on the cigarette clenched between his teeth. He briefly looked in the back mirror, glancing at Mustang.

"Hey Boss? Where do you think the chief will be?" Havoc sounded slightly worried.

Mustang sighed and looked up to meet Havoc's eyes on the mirror. "I'm going to be checking all the nearby hospitals, though I can't imagine Fullmetal staying in one of those this long."

Havoc nodded, picking up the unspoken message of, 'Unless he was physically unable to.'. That worried Havoc, but he smiled grimly and said, "Yeah, I can't imagine chief being stuck in a hospital."_  
_

Roy grunted in agreement. But he still heard, 'That's what I'm worried about to.' hidden in Havoc's reply. They sat there in silence for the next hour, Mustang looking out the window on to the scenery that was flashing by. He was lost in his thoughts, wrapped up in possibilities about what might have happened. Havoc's voice shook him grom his thoughts.

"We're here Boss."

Mustang started a little bit, not noticing that the scenery had changed, and he was now looking out on a small village. He nodded a reply to Havoc, then opened the door and stepped out of the car. The village looked quite normal and peaceful, he thought, but then he turned around. A mass of stone, glass and fire was spread out over a huge area. Roy got the impression that it must have been quuite magnificent, while it had been standing.

Scurrying through the wreckage were some low ranking military officers. The head of them seemed to be a Secpnd Lieutenant, who was shouting out orders. Roy walked towards him slowly, taking in his surroundings. Everything was organised chaos. Shouts and crys wre heard and more answered them. The crackling of fire underlying it all. Soldiers dressed in blue were clearing of the stone and glass, seemingly not bothered by the fires raging next to them.

Mustang found himself standing in front of the 2nd Lieutenant, waiting for him to notice him. He turned around and Rot didn't recognize his face. But from the expression the other man was wearing, he seemingly recognized Mustang.

Shock still written on his face, he stood to attention and saluted. "Colonel Mustang, sir!"

"At ease soldier." Mustang turned around and surveyed the land. "Why haven't you stopped the fires?"

He looked at Mustang and explained. "We tried to at first, but they're just to big to be put out completely, so all we can do is control them before we get the means to stop them completely, sir."

Roy nodded in understanding. "Have you found any survivors?" His clenched his muscles, hoping to god that the man didn't confirm his worst fears.

The man nodded. "Yes we have. Only one though."

Mustang almost sighed in relief, before keeping himself in check, telling himself that it might not have been Fullmetal. "And where is he now?"

The Second Lieutenant looked strangely at Mustang, maybe wondering how he knew it was a man that they had found. "We took him to the military hospital nearest here."

Roy nodded. "Thank you, 2nd Lieutenant."

"You're welcome, sir." Another salute.

He turned away and walked towards Havoc. Havoc was looking at him anxiously, waiting for an answer.

Roy cleared his throat. "One survivor. He's in the military hospital in Selthor."

"I'm presuming we're going there then?" Havoc asked.

"How did you know?" Mustang answered sarcastically.

Havoc, however, replied seriously. "Because you wouldn't be Roy Mustang if you didn't."

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The colonel strode into the hospital, the epitome of confidence. Inside though, he was anxious and worried. Not gicing any hint of this, he walked up to the reception desk. He smiled pleasantly at the nurse behind it.

"Hello, I'm looking for a man who came in here from Guilden? About a week ago?" Roy said, making sure he didn't rush his words, even if his heart was pounding.

"Yes, he's here. May I ask who is enquiring?" The nurse said briskly, pen on paper.

"Colonel Roy Mustang." He said quickly, wanting to see the man soon, with no more delays.

"Okay. Can I have some identification?" She looked apoligetically up at him, but still with a professional face.

"Of course," he said smoothly. "Is this enough?" He held out his State Alchemist pocketwatch.

"That will do. He's in room 304, second floor." The nurse looked at the watch, then handed it back.

"Thank you for your help." He said over his shoulder, as he had already started heading towards the stairwell. He rushed up the stairs, then stopped trying to calm his heart and pulse. It wouldn't look good to visit this man in such a flustered state. Once he thought himself sufficiently calmed down, he started up the stairs again, but at a slower pace. He exited the stairwell to find himself next to room 287. Not to far to walk then. Counting the rooms as he went, Roy made his way down the corridor, making way for hospital staff as they walked past. Stopped outside room 304. Mustang took a deep breath and pulled the door open.

A/N- Finally I finished this. It's the longest chapter yet! Even if it still isn't very long... but I'm working on it! It ended with a sort of cliffhanger, but I mainly stopped because I needed to at least post something. Anyway I hope you liked it, and please review!

Fullmetalsoul0062


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